Whole beer cans!

Papakhan

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Location
Boone, NC
Detector(s) used
Garrett ACE 250, Garrett AT Pro, Garrett AT Pro-Pointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I guess where I live no one ever learned to use a trash can because I keep finding whole beer cans at 6 to 10 inches. I am relatively new to the AT Pro but these things ring just like a quarter ( vdi 85 to 90) is there any way to avoid excavating these things. I am giving up on targets if.my pro pointer rings at the surface or 1 or two inches down and I still haven't found it at 6 inches.any help would be greatly appreciated. I am getting really frustrated 6 hours out yesterday 1 clad quarter couple of shotgun shells and about a dozen cans. All this on an old farm that I am still looking for the old home sites on.
 

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To experiment, after getting that big hit, raise your coil above the target by an extra six inches. Still a big hit? May not be a coin. Digging will confirm.
At the risk of missing something good by passing and not digging, there should be a height your detector quits reaching an actual quarter long before it quits hitting a can.
Whats under or in the can though a reason to recover cans ,usually.
Raising coil a foot above ground and still getting a hit,not a coin , in theory. Again, experiment, maybe..
 

To experiment, after getting that big hit, raise your coil above the target by an extra six inches. Still a big hit? May not be a coin. Digging will confirm.
At the risk of missing something good by passing and not digging, there should be a height your detector quits reaching an actual quarter long before it quits hitting a can.
Whats under or in the can though a reason to recover cans ,usually.
Raising coil a foot above ground and still getting a hit,not a coin , in theory. Again, experiment, maybe..

completely agree.I raise my coil to 6 to 8 inches above those targets ans swing.if I'm still getting signal its almostALWAYS a can or other large piece of scrap.prolly dug 20 to confirm and was 20 for 20 correct.Has helped me immensly
 

had not tred this even though I saw someone on youtube talk about this very thing. Thanks for the help I will give this a try. I went out again today andfound that if the target pinpoints like a manhole lid I'm hearing a can. If any body has lost a beer can and needs it found I guess I'm your man. LOL
 

Is there a sod layer you're working through? I've found in several of the new subdivisions, when the sod gets laid down, the contracting workforce simply lays the sod over the top of their cans as they're working. It's quite annoying.

LOVE your comment about 'if anyone has lost their beer can and needs someone to find it, I'm their man." I laughed good and hard about that one!
 

It's an abnormal day that I do not pull a can or can slaw while hunting.
 

What's up in Watauga County?

We all dig a bunch of trash, that is just part of the game. If you only dig the "good" signals (steady numbers and clean tones), you will miss more than half the treasure.

You might try "sizing" the target, go at the target from the right, see where it starts to hit, then go at it from the left and see where it starts. This can help determine how large the target is. If it's 3 or 4 inches wide, it might not be what you want (coins). If the target hits high and is small, dig it up!

It can be really frustrating, it will get easier and you will get better at it. It just takes practice. GL&HH.
 

When pinpointing if the tone doesn't cut out really close in 3 directions its generally something large and junk. I like the lifting the coil idea guys that's great thanks!

But yeah, those super loud hits...it's either a silver dollar or a can...and there just aren't a of of silver dollars out there!
 

I guess where I live no one ever learned to use a trash can because I keep finding whole beer cans at 6 to 10 inches. I am relatively new to the AT Pro but these things ring just like a quarter ( vdi 85 to 90) is there any way to avoid excavating these things. I am giving up on targets if.my pro pointer rings at the surface or 1 or two inches down and I still haven't found it at 6 inches.any help would be greatly appreciated. I am getting really frustrated 6 hours out yesterday 1 clad quarter couple of shotgun shells and about a dozen cans. All this on an old farm that I am still looking for the old home sites on.
At least it's not at 2 feet like some of the ones I find at the beach! I dig them regardless, for at least a couple of reasons. First, it gets them out of the sand where they'll disintegrate leaving tons of slaw everywhere and each of them sound like a gold ring. Second, and most important, I've made some great finds with what I thought was going to be a can.
 

Blunt the end of a long screwdriver- and use it to probe the target- especially in sand- you will know a can a mile off.
 

Clad quarters read and sound the same as can slaw on my M6.
A whole can should give a signal over a larger area than a quarter would, and if it's silver (pre 1964) the #'s and tone should be higher.

Pay attention to the subtleties in your detectors reactions between a clad quarter and a can. Do tests it pays.
I search very trashy areas, there are no clear spots to ground balance at times, I have learned that a nickel reads 14-20 and a pop top 20+.
 

I size it with pinpoint mode. If it's BIG and rectangular and the tone drops off smoothly, but bounces a notch on my 350 it's a full sized can and I just keep moving. I was digging this stuff to get rid of it, but some joker buried 6 cans in one spot. Took me 45 minutes to dig them all out and multiple trips to the trash can. Ridiculous!

Now I avoid digging anything I suspect is a can. If I dig enough to see it, then I am stuck removing it. I always cringe though thinking it could be a necklace.
 

Which creates another question. Does a necklace give off the same profile as a can??:dontknow:
I size it with pinpoint mode. If it's BIG and rectangular and the tone drops off smoothly, but bounces a notch on my 350 it's a full sized can and I just keep moving. I was digging this stuff to get rid of it, but some joker buried 6 cans in one spot. Took me 45 minutes to dig them all out and multiple trips to the trash can. Ridiculous!

Now I avoid digging anything I suspect is a can. If I dig enough to see it, then I am stuck removing it. I always cringe though thinking it could be a necklace.
 

Which creates another question. Does a necklace give off the same profile as a can??:dontknow:

No. In fact your lucky to even find most necklaces at all. Each individual link screws with the detection of the whole. A lot of detectors won't even see it unless it has a clasp or pendant of some sort or it it packed into a tight ball. Definitely not a buried aluminum can signal.
 

Not in my experience. In fact, necklaces are weird. I just pulled one last night with a really big silver and gold cross. (haven't tested it yet, though it was ringing between silver and gold, as expected). What is weird about the necklaces, is that if they're thin, you'll get isolated signals that don't display/sound off like a normal target that is thick. In fact, if your necklace is unclasped and strung out, you can easily miss them if they're thin gold. It's weird that way. If you happen to catch the strand along the horizontal (swinging down the length), you'll get a solid signal and likely be fairly accurate on metal type. The moment you hit that sucker at a diagonal, or across the vertical, the signal bounces funny. In fact, the one I dug last night, I was convinced was a pocket spill, due to the crappy signals that were all over the place. It was "different" than anything I'd encountered (actually, only since the last necklace, LOL), and I definitely wanted to find out what it was. Goes back to "dig everything" of course. :)

The thicker the necklace strand, the easier it is to detect, but the composition of the metals will make every necklace display/sound off weird. Since gold, for example, isn't likely to come in 24K necklace (too soft), you'll get an alloy that will cause the signal to bounce erratically, depending on the content. They're all a bit different, in my experience, so there's no really good way to make the ID, other than to suggest "you'll get erratic signals, depending on direction of swing, and depth"

The best necklaces, of course, are the ones with a pendant of some sort on them. Those typically have a solid signal at some point, and the chain along the edge.

Last piece of advice. If you DO come across a signal that is strong in one area, and bounces in another, dig on the OPPOSITE side of the bounce. You'll be less likely to drive a digger tool through the chain, breaking it. I've used this advice 100% of the time, and have never broken a chain, yet (with 7 necklace finds this year).

Cheers!
Skippy

Which creates another question. Does a necklace give off the same profile as a can??:dontknow:
 

Last piece of advice. If you DO come across a signal that is strong in one area, and bounces in another, dig on the OPPOSITE side of the bounce.

Cheers!
Skippy

Thanks for the tips, could you describe what you mean by bounce? This is new to me.
Thanks!
 

He means the signal is bouncing from one tone/number to the next....not just one solid tone/number
 

Thanks Skippy!!:thumbsup:
Not in my experience. In fact, necklaces are weird. I just pulled one last night with a really big silver and gold cross. (haven't tested it yet, though it was ringing between silver and gold, as expected). What is weird about the necklaces, is that if they're thin, you'll get isolated signals that don't display/sound off like a normal target that is thick. In fact, if your necklace is unclasped and strung out, you can easily miss them if they're thin gold. It's weird that way. If you happen to catch the strand along the horizontal (swinging down the length), you'll get a solid signal and likely be fairly accurate on metal type. The moment you hit that sucker at a diagonal, or across the vertical, the signal bounces funny. In fact, the one I dug last night, I was convinced was a pocket spill, due to the crappy signals that were all over the place. It was "different" than anything I'd encountered (actually, only since the last necklace, LOL), and I definitely wanted to find out what it was. Goes back to "dig everything" of course. :)

The thicker the necklace strand, the easier it is to detect, but the composition of the metals will make every necklace display/sound off weird. Since gold, for example, isn't likely to come in 24K necklace (too soft), you'll get an alloy that will cause the signal to bounce erratically, depending on the content. They're all a bit different, in my experience, so there's no really good way to make the ID, other than to suggest "you'll get erratic signals, depending on direction of swing, and depth"

The best necklaces, of course, are the ones with a pendant of some sort on them. Those typically have a solid signal at some point, and the chain along the edge.

Last piece of advice. If you DO come across a signal that is strong in one area, and bounces in another, dig on the OPPOSITE side of the bounce. You'll be less likely to drive a digger tool through the chain, breaking it. I've used this advice 100% of the time, and have never broken a chain, yet (with 7 necklace finds this year).

Cheers!
Skippy
 

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